1 FEBRUARY 1913, Page 24

Ancient Egyptian Legends. By M. A. Murray. (John Murray. 2s.

net.)—English readers are unfamiliar with the legends of Egypt, with the exception perhaps of the story of Osiris and Isis. In the new volume of the " Wisdom of the East" series a number of them are collected. Mr. Murray has paraphrased them, "retain- ing, however, as far as possible the expressions and metaphors of the Egyptian." The result is in the conventional style used for rendering all ancient literature into English : for instance, "Naught did they know of the gods, lawless were they and savage." Otherwise the translation is very welcome, and gives us a glimpse of a mythology strangely remote from any to which we are accustomed—a mythology full of red hippopotami, and black pigs, and winged snakes with legs.